Monday, 30 June 2014

How cool are these hand crotchet doily rugs from Ladies and Gentleman Studio? Having given crocheting a go recently and being absolutely terrible (the baby blanket I made was shocking!!) I am in awe of these rugs.. I must get back to practicing

Friday, 27 June 2014

My front garden to my house is in desperate need of some TLC so I have been collating images of houses with entrances I would love to come home too. SOme brightly coloured pots and a jungle garden theme or a medicinal herb garden? I can't quite decide...

As mentioned previously, I have recently been trying to declutter my home and stop needlessly buying 'bargains'. Despite 33 years of magpie behaviour, this challenge has actually not been as difficult as i had expected, mainly due to having a hungry baby to look after and no time to go shopping.

A combination of demand feeding a three week old hungry Alex and healing from my c-section mean that sitting anywhere but my bedroom or on my sofa is pretty much out of the question for me at the moment.... meaing even more time spent on Pinterest drooling over beautiful interiors.

Here are a few of my favorite bohemian style Bedrooms from the last couple of weeks... the first however is definitely my favorite... yet again a room with a mattress on the floor wins my vote!

Sunday, 22 June 2014

This nursery is beautiful isn't it? It is the nursery of Captain and Sugar, styled by blogger mum from Captain and the Gypsy kid. I love the warm natural tones pared with the bright textiles and art work. Okay so it is styled for the Elle photo-shoot within an inch of its life, but all the elements are there.

Captain and the Gypsy kid is a really beautiful blog and if you like the nursery I suggest you check out the rest of the home here

Friday, 20 June 2014

Originally from Minnesota, Sugarhigh Lovestoned creative director Tami moved to Maui in 1999 to "live a humble, pared-down existence where nature, art and surf rule the days". Tami lives in this beautiful beach shack, built in 2011, with her dog Lewis.

With an outdoor shower and toilet hut and a huge window that almost turns the kitchen into a balcony this home really is so different from anything I could ever imagine here in the UK. This really is an inspiring bohemian home...... I am off to day dream...

To view more of this beautiful home and read a short interview visit Houzz here

Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Mineral meditation space at this years Spirit Weavers gathering: Image by Tracey Conti-McCartney (Prism of Threads)

My Goodness what an eventful couple of weeks it has been!!!!

Two weeks ago today I gave birth to my beautiful little Alexander Miles (well not too little at 10.2 llbs) via an emergency Cesarian. I had planned to have a natural birth at a special birthing center equipped with birthing pools and aromatherapy oils but due to me developing pre-eclampsia at the last minute was rushed into hospital and induced and then to top it off needed an emergency caesarian after 19 hours of labour. Although the birth was 100% the opposite of what was planned Alexander was born healthy and happy and with a full head of beautiful auburn hair.

Then Saturday we were rushed into the children's hospital with a floppy, unresponsive baby and there were talks of infections and a possibility of meningitis. After a very stressful 48 hours inluding IV medication, a horrible Lumbar puncture, talk of a 3 week stay in hospital and a very neurotic me thinking the worst (doesn't help being a nurse) we were finally discharged last night and told the sample was probably contaminated and judging by how much he had perked up it was probably just a viral infection. Phew!!!

So it has been a stressful couple of weeks and I have been neglecting some really kind congratulations emails for which I do apologize! Sadly I am also banned from putting any images on facebook or Moon to Moon by my partner (although I have sneaked one on instagram but schhh!) which is a bit sad as i really wanted to show him off.

Thank you for all the kind messages and positive thoughts over the last couple of weeks, it has really meant a lot

Friday, 13 June 2014

Every Month Moon to Moon has a lovely selection of sponsors hand picked
from emails every month requesting a Slot. Many of them are
from large corporations and high street chains, that I do not feel
reflect Moon to Moon or its readers interests. So I turn down the larger
companies to highlight the smaller businesses who I feel comfortable
and proud to work with....

I am extremely grateful to all the sponsors, long and short term that
have supported Moon to Moon, and so have decided to start a monthly
post, highlighting these wonderful artists and small businesses that I
am proud to work with.....

Beyond Marrakesh is a small company based outside of Marrakesh and run
by the wonderfully lovely Danielle. Beyond Marrakesh is my longest
standing sponsor and I have seen Danielle's beautiful shop and stunning
Guest House (check it out here) develop. I have the most beautiful Handira from Danielle's and even my boyfriend is obsessed.... the warmest winter blanket ever!!!

Uchizono Gallery. Uchizono
has become a bit of an obsession of mine recently, Shop owner Rachel
really has the most beautiful collection of jewellery including a drool
worthy collection of vintage Squash blossom necklaces. Check out the
gallery here... but we warned you will be there for hours!!

Soul Makes is another small
business that has been a Moon to Moon Sponsor for the best part of 2013.
I first became obsessed with Soul Makes after receiving a stunning
Jasper necklace from the talented maker Mac back in Spring. I wear it everywhere and get so many comments on it!!

Peyote Moon is handcrafted on the Northern California coast. My little studio overlooks the river and is within earshot of the ocean's waves, making it a truly inspiring place to create. Through my work I get to explore the rich traditions of ancient cultures from around the globe. I am fascinated by the exotic, the mysterious, and the adventurous. Each piece is designed to evoke these qualities..

If you would like to be a sponsor of Moon To Moon and feature in the
next 'Meet the Sponsors' post, then email me at moontomoon@live.co.uk

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

I am not sure how many moons ago it was that I fell in love with the stair case from this house but I have spent hours dreaming about the beautiful house that it would belong too, and imagining myself there........Finally I have found the house and it is just as spectacular as i had hoped it would be, sadly the architect and his family still live there so I doubt I will be moving in.

This beautiful property in the wonderfully named town 'Rough and Ready', California is home to architect Ken Meffan and took 10 years to build....

This was a really difficult site to build on, because there’s so much
water. A creek runs through it, and there are springs all over the
place. But we love the water, and so do the kids. They dam the creek up
every summer for swimming, and it collects silt in the winter, which
makes great compost for the garden. Last year, we grew sunflowers that
must have been 12 feet tall.

There are two structures on the property: the little workshop, where
we lived for almost ten years, and the main house. Before the workshop,
we lived in a tent. We were very poor, but we were having an adventure,
like the Swiss Family Robinson—–until a giant, once-every-20-years
rainstorm pretty much blew us away. The morning after the storm was
over, the kids came to me and said, “Dad, this isn’t so much fun
anymore.”

We only had two of the four kids when I started building the main
house, and as the family grew, we kept adding bedrooms. Officially, it’s
3,400 square feet, but half of that is a greenhouse. When I was a young
architect in Malibu, I hired a landscaper who took me to a greenhouse
tucked back in one of the canyons. It was crammed full of plants, and
when we squeezed down one aisle, he said, “Just take a deep breath.” And
when I breathed that pure, oxygen-fortified air, I knew that I wanted
to build a house just like that.

Regular houses are full of barriers. Even windows are psychological
barriers. Here, we slide open the walls and live in direct contact with
nature. You can feel the weather in here. I was on a business call once
when it was raining; it was this tremendous downpour, where the sky just
opened up, and I couldn’t hear or talk. That’s what this house is all
about.

Living with wildlife is also important. We get lizards inside and
don’t bother to run them out. We’ve had wild turkeys wander in, and a
baby squirrel used to sleep with the kids. We have tons of people here
all the time, too. I’ve stopped noticing when there’s an extra kid or
two in the house.

I consider this house a prototype. Some of its features I wouldn’t
dare build for customers, in case they don’t work out. Like the
garage-door “sunroof” in our bedroom, or the sliding glass walls. When I
build those walls for customers, I buy cool, superexpensive hardware
from Germany, with big lever handles. Here, I tried something different,
putting them on Rollerblade wheels. They worked out wonderfully,
though! The flip side of experimenting is that the inspection process
can be a real drag. I had to get a rural occupancy permit for us to live
out here. And I had to block off the spot where the fireman’s pole was
supposed to go.

For the walls, my theory was “anything but drywall.” The walls on the
ground floor are straw bales, covered with clay mud dug from the site.
And a lot of the wood upstairs is salvaged. When I build big vacation
houses for other people, we usually clear a bunch of trees on the
location and mill them into lumber onsite.And then when the job is over,
I just drag home whatever’s left and use it around here.

There’s corrugated polycarbonate on the roof of the greenhouse and
corrugated galvanized siding out on the workshop. I consider it an
indigenous material. In nearby gold-mining towns like Grass Valley and
Nevada City, the forty-niners used corrugated metal extensively,
probably because it was a cheap material. They built a lot of Victorian
houses, too, but those don’t stimulate me as much as an old barn does,
or an old mine building. If you make a building too perfect, it doesn’t
give you that interesting feel. You don’t want your house to feel like a
modern furniture store.

I grew up in suburbia, in Redondo Beach, California, and I think our
environment here is a rebellion against that. Once, I wondered if the
kids might be better off somewhere else, so I asked them what they
thought about living here. They said, “Are you kidding, Dad? We love it
here.” They don’t know anything different, of course. But they will. My
20-year-old daughter lives down in San Luis Obispo now, and she thought
it was so great to have her own apartment. But after two weeks of
sitting in that drywall box, she started to appreciate what she had up
here in Rough and Ready. We’re pretty good with weird around here. It’s a
little on the funky side, but it’s home.

Sunday, 8 June 2014

Did you know Actress Tippi Hendren lived with a Lion? No nor did I until I found these pictures from a 1971 Life magazine! I had seen the second picture before but thought it was a taxidermy animal... I love big animals but I think even for me a Lion as a pet is a bit way- out, especially around my kids!!

"On the edge of the Mojave Desert forty miles northeast of Los Angeles is SHAMBALA, a "Shangri-La" for unwanted and abandoned exotic animals. The only game preserve of its kind in the United States, Shambala is
a unique haven for more than 50 large animals that live together on
60-acres of a recreated African wildlife habitat. Residing in this
secluded riverine are African Lions, Royal Bengal Tigers, African and
Asian Leopards, American Cougars, African Servals and African Elephants,
most of them orphans or cast-offs from circuses, private owners and
zoos. And overseeing them all from a modest 2-bedroom cottage surrounded
by the animal compounds is Tippi Hedren, star of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, whose life has evolved from actress to animal protector, conservationist and "den mother" to a unique brood of felines"

Mooon To Moon

Hi My name is Gabi and I am a nurse and mother based in Bristol, England. Moon to Moon has become my place to share my passion for chilled out, unfussy homes, hand made and vintage items and slow living.

** most of the pictures I have used have been from pintrest and tumblr, sadly many have no credit. I am slowly working my way through my past posts trying to add sources. If you recognize a picture please please drop me an email, or leave a comment in that post. Cheers Gabi xxx